Giving Week is here: donate funds to MNer-nominated organisations and MNHQ will match them!

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello all

As you may remember, a wee while back we asked you to nominate your favourite charities and related organisations for the inaugural Mumsnet Giving Week. Well - the nominations are in, the shortlist has been drawn up and Mumsnet Giving week starts here!

First, a thank you: you suggested an amazing selection of worthy organisations, and choosing just five was, as you can imagine, an astonishingly difficult task. In the end, though, we settled on the following:

Women's Aid
Free Cakes for Kids
Woolly Hugs
Haven House
PDA Society

As of now, the Yimby and Just Giving fundraising pages are ready to take your donations. And remember, we’ll be matching whatever money you raise, up to the combined total of £25k (we thought we’d better set some sort of limit in case one of you turns out to be fabulously wealthy and decides to drop a million quid - which would, of course, be amazing, but might leave us scrabbling around a bit come payday )

We’re mindful that most of you won’t be able to donate large amounts, of course - but small amounts are extremely welcome! And if you’d like to help out in other ways (we really don’t want anyone to feel bad about not being able to donate), we’d be very grateful for any noise you can make via Facebook, Twitter etc etc: the best place to link to to explain the whole project is here and the hashtag is #MumsnetGiving.

Thanks very much - here’s to raising lots of money for some brilliant causes.

[feetheart]

It seems that for some on the list you can 'Donate' and then can do Gift Aid but on others it is a 'Pledge" and the Gift Aid icon doesn't come up. Not sure how this can be sorted but it would be good if it could be.

Brilliant idea MN, well done.

[GlaikitFizzog]

To get gift aid you need to be a registered charity, I know one of the causes is only working towards their registration. I can see the others have gift aid.

[Galena]

It's explained somewhere, that 3 of them aren't registered charities so cannot accept gift aid, whereas the other 2 can.

[GlaikitFizzog]

Galena, you are right! I just don't real things properly

[GlaikitFizzog]

Read!

[MrsKwazii]

This is great MNHQ - so exciting to see Woolly Hugs at 82% of their target already! Can they raise more than the £1,000? Is that just their minimum limit?

[cozietoesie]

As far as I can see (and add) the targets total £13k and MNHQ have said they'll kindly match up to £25k - so there's plenty of room even on that!

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

In the OP to this thread MNHQ have said "up to the combined total of 25k" so if donations have reached 13k then we may have reached that point?

Not sure if all or any of the charities have reached their targets as yet though, and from something I was reading on JustGiving I think it's important that they do? Does anyone know more about the targets and what significance they have?

[Galena]

I thought 'combined total' was combined across all the charities.

And I believe that a charity receives nothing from MNHQ unless it gets over £1000 in pledges/donations.

Come on WoollyHugs, you can do it!

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Ah yes - I thought of that afterwards myself - I expect that's right Galena
Come on Woolly Hugs.
How are all the others doing too?

[cozietoesie]

Not bad at all but there's still a way to go.

I'll confess to being a bit lost on the 'targets and matching' thing now but I'm hopeful that MNHQ will interpret their kind offer in a generous way in the event of doubt.

[GermyElephant]

I think HQ will shell out a maximum of £25k from their coffers.

[KatieMumsnet]

Hi All

Just to clarify. We match donations (big or small, and at any point, even if the total is less than £1k) up to a total of £25k for the whole Mumsnet Giving Week project.

This means if one charity raises £500 and another raises £10k we'd match both of those amounts, but if the total amount we'd need to contribute went past the £25k we'd stop at that point. .

Really hope that makes sense, essentially, for every penny donated to any charity we match it, up to a total pot of £25k.

And yes, only registered charities (Women's Aid and Haven House) can claim tax relief, the others are community projects so can't.

[KatieMumsnet]

And if any (or all) charities bust their targets, everyone can carry on giving and we'll carry on matching (up to that £25k point).

[GermyElephant]

But if they don't get the target they get nothing, is that right?

[MrsCakesPremonition]

I don't think so Germy. Why would you think that?

[KatieMumsnet]

Hi GermyElephant. That's how Yimby usually works as they are very project focussed at don't want to fund half a church roof or similar.

However Woolly Hugs and PDA are already at 90% of their target, and we've got a few more things planned over the week to encourage people to give (and or course please do share). We're also talking to Yimby about possible workarounds, but for now, would love to be positive and think all three will meet their targets.

[cozietoesie]

I just looked at the Woolly Hugs page and do you know? It cheered me up just to see those wonderful piles of colours.

[CateBlanket]

Just out on interest, how is Yimby different to Just Giving? I notice Yimby have kick started the fund raising for their 3 MN organisations with a kind donation of £50.

[CateBlanket]

So if, say, Free Cakes for Kids didn't reach their target with donations from MNetters, Yimby would say "sorry MNHQ you can't match the donations"? I have got that wrong, haven't I?

And what would Yimby do with the donations already received (if didn't reach target) - give them back to donors?

I can be a bit slow sometimes

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Yes, I think that with these things if the target isn't reached then donations might not be collected (could be why the word "pledges" is sometimes used ?)

• glad it's not just me Cate
  

< off to look at beautiful colours in WoolleyHugs blankets >

[Galena]

That's how yimby works usually - if target isn't raised nobody gets charged anything and money is only taken at the end of the time given. However, KateMNHQ up there^ seemed to be saying that for this they were working with yimby to ensure that whatever is pledged is collected and matched by MNHQ, even if below the target amount. (and Yay to WoollyHugs for reaching £1000!)

[KatieMumsnet]

All charities can also keep their pages open after our 'week' to continue to raise funds. And obviously when we've match funded what's already there, they'll be much nearer target.

We've got an email going out to Mumsnet users any minute now, and I think that will really help people reach target. I know it's a bit confusing (I'm still a bit confused, and having been looking at this for weeks), but Yimby is on of the first platforms in UK at mo that allows giving to non-registered charities, and for most of these causes a target for a specific project makes lots of sense.

Phew and to Woolly Hugs for meeting target already.

[Protego]

For many years when I was earning I made standing order donations to my 4 fave charities on which they could reclaim the tax under Gift Aid. (They were 'human' charities: Amnesty, Samaritans, BHF and Action Aid).
No though I am unable to work due to Sjogren's Syndrome and we struggle to pay the mortgage I cannot afford to donate. BUT, and this is what I wanted to share with others who might be in straightened circumstances, I sign e-petitions and write letters for Amnesty prisoner release campaigns, I volunteer on a charity helpline (for which I had training in my previous career) and try to do my bit in practical rather than purely financial ways. It is actually more satisfying to get involved and have contact with people - has anyone else any ideas for how to help? NB I do NOT mean in ways which are burdensome to charities!